What is a Dive Watch?

A Deep Dive into Dive Watches

Dive watches are a subset of tool watches. Dive watches were originally designed for diving--and particularly--SCUBA diving. 

Hamilton Khaki Navy Frogman Automatic Dive Watch (Amazon photo)

Dive Watch Properties

Dive watches are made of robust materials like stainless steel or titanium to resist corrosion, they have high degrees of water resistance (typically above 100-meters with 200 or 300 meters water resistance for professional models). They have unidirectional rotating bezels to help with timing a dive. They usually have screw-down crowns to increase water resistance. Professional models might also have helium release valves to help professional divers using underwater diving bells decompress their watch without damage.

Dive Watch Examples

Watches like the Rolex Submariner, Rolex Sea Dweller, and Omega Seamaster Diver 300M are well known dive watch examples. The titanium Hamilton Khaki Navy Frogman Automatic Dive Watch here on Amazon is a very good example of a solid dive watch.

Dive Watches versus Diver-style Watches

Over the years on this blog, I've evolved into reserving the label "dive watch" for watches that had more than 100-meters of water resistance, rotating bezels, and screw-down crowns. Watches that have the look, but don't deliver the performance features, get the "diver-style" watch label. They can still be beautiful, but I don't want to call them dive watches.

While I love it dearly, my old Pulsar PS9319 (reviewed here on this blog) is just a diver-style watch. Even though it has 100-meters of water resistance, it doesn't have a rotating bezel and it is clearly made for beauty and not SCUBA diving.

If you are realistic about your likelihood of SCUBA diving, you can save lots of money by choosing a diver-style watch over a proper dive watch. But, it's also nice to know that you could go SCUBA  diving anytime if you had the time.

Watch Deal Alert: Timex Men's Southview Quartz Watch at 42% off.

If you are looking for a nice Timex, there are plenty of beautiful watches in the Timex Waterbury Collection, but sometimes Timex offers similar features in their regular watch collections.  For example, the Timex Men's Southview Quartz Watch has lines that are very similar to some of the watches in the Waterbury Collection.  It has a 41mm diameter brass case, a crown with a golden tone, and a nice genuine leather strap. The Roman number font has a simpler modern font and the dial is one color. Where the Waterbury collection embraces traditional and decorative details, this Southview embraces modernity and minimalism.

Timex Men's Southview Quartz Watch

The Timex Southview is a very respectable and functional watch that normally retails for around $70. But, now in August 2025, it's on sale for 42% off! That brings the price down to $40! That's a price from over a decade ago. You can get this price on the Timex Southview for a limited time at --

Timex Southview watch on Amazon!

Watches A to Z: Peugeot Watches

Over the years, I've stumbled across the Peugeot watch company on Amazon several times. I always gave them a passing glance and wondered if they were related to the French Peugeot car company. It turns out that they aren't and their real story is far more interesting. 

Peugeot Men's Rectangular Watch (Amazon Photo)
Get This Peugeot Watch on Amazon

I did a bit of digging into this company. Apparently, it was founded by a watchmaker named Paul Peugeot back in 1957. For 25 years, they made traditional luxury watches with mechanical movements, but having weathered the quartz watch revolution, they pivoted to affordable, quartz, fashion watches. 

Peugeot Men's Non-Rotating Sport Bezel Watch
Get this Peugeot watch here on Amazon

Why? Originally, they made many watches with 18K gold. But, when gold prices rose with inflation and geopolitical issues in the late 70s and early 80s, the watches became unaffordable to lower and middle class markets where they had a strong reputation for quality and good prices.

Today, the Peugeot brand offers a wide variety of watches at affordable price points. The brand also backs their watches with a limited lifetime warranty, free battery replacement for life, and free link removal for resizing.

Peugeot Men's 14K Gold-Plated Moon Phase Dress Watch (Amazon Photo)
Get this Peugeot Watch Here on Amazon

Peugeot offers an interesting mix of watches and draws inspiration from traditional European watch designs. You'll find lots of tanker-style watches, moon-phase watches, and some homages to famous watches. I like this gold-plated homage to the Rolex Datejust. 

Peugeot 14K Gold Plated Luxury Big Face Watch (Amazon Photo)
Get this Peugeot Watch here on Amazon

Some of the other Peugeot watches resemble the Rolex Submariner  and Cartier tankers. At price points under $100, buyers should definitely read the reviews before making a purchase. But, Peugeot offers a good warranty and has some very attractive timepieces.

TGIF: Ten Watch Details That Make You Feel Rich

When it comes to watches, the smallest of details can really make you feel good about your watch purchase. In my years of collecting, I've found that little things can come together to make a timepiece satisfying. Here are ten details that make a watch feel like a luxury and that I am richer for having made the purchase.

1. A Mechanical Movement - When I buy a watch with a mechanical movement, I feel connected to the magic and mechanical wizardry of watches. It doesn't matter if the watch came from Switzerland, the far east, or a workshop in India, if it winds or shakes and ticks, then I feel like I have something special.

My refurbished HMT Pilot is powered by a manually wound movement

 I think a mechanical watch is one of the closest things we have to a magic item in this world today.

2. Well-Designed Bezels - When it comes to watch bezels that bring something to the party that is my watch. If a bezel has diver-style markings, I like the bezel to be rotating with clicks and unidirectional. It's one of the things that separates "real dive watches" from "diver-style watches." If the bezel doesn't rotate, I like when bezel on a dress or sport watch has some design features like a coin-edge or an engraved design.

3. Fancy Hands - I like when there is something a little special about the hands of a watch. For example, I like the W-shaped design of the back part of the second hand on my Timex Waterbury watches. It looks like craftsmanship. Similarly, if the watch is a tool watch, it's nice to see some lume on the hands so that the watch can be read in the dark.

This Timex Waterbury Standard Watch has a great bezel

4. Stainless Steel Cases - A stainless steel case feels substantial. It has weight and substance. It's real metal. Titanium feels real, too. Cases made from lesser base metals like brass, copper, tin, or zinc or from various plastics and resins just don't feel as luxurious. They also may not last as long. I've got plenty of inexpensive watches with base metal cases, but stainless steel or titanium just feel like richer materials and better purchases.

5. Working Subdials - I blow hot and cold with subdials. I can barely read them even with reading glasses. But, when subdials don't work, a watch can feel like a mere facade of a watch. I wish companies that use non-functional subdials would replace them with other design elements like shields or sailing ships or compass roses or meaningful logos.

The Invicta Sub Aqua Noma III 

6. Engraved Casebacks - An engraved caseback is a way for a company to share heritage and communicate watch capabilities with the watch wearer.

The Engraved Caseback of a Timex Waterbury Watch

I like an engraved caseback much more than a plain one. Some engraved casebacks are practically works of fine art. I like having art. Art enriches the soul.

The Engraved Caseback of an Invicta Sub Aqua Noma III

7. Engraved Buckles - If you have a watch with an engrave buckle (usually with the name or logo of the watchmaker), you feel like you are getting something that isn't generic. You feel like the watch company invested a little more in the design and detail of your watch.

The Engraved Buckle of the Sub Aqua Noma III

8. Crowns with Designs - A crown with a design engraved in it or a jewel embedded in it, feels a little more finished and a little more polished, than a plain generic crown.

The Engraved Crown of my Timex Waterbury

9. Genuine Leather Straps - In this synthetic world, it's nice to have something genuine.

The Leather Strap of my Timex Waterbury

10. Improved Dials - A dial design with interesting materials or a textured surface or a sunray dial is more interesting than a plain dial.

The sunburst dial of my Caribbean Joe watch

I may not want to have each and every one of these elements incorporated into one watch, but when a design incorporates several of these features, my purchase makes me feel pretty rich.

If you are looking for a watch that brings many of these details together, check out the Timex Waterbury Men's Standard 3 Hand Quartz Watch (above) with a Silver-Tone on Silver-Tone case and dial and a brown leather strap.  It's a real bargain at less than $60. You can get this Timex here on Amazon.

Art Watches - Swatch Unisex Casual Bioceramic Watch Black Art Journey Leger's Two Women Holding Flowers

If you are an artist or art enthusiast, you might really like the art watch collection from Swatch. These watches are quite different from what we normally see. As unusual watches, they might be great additions to any watch collection. Best of all, they are attainably priced. The watch below is a Swatch Bioceramic Watch from their Black Art Journey collection and it incorporates elements of a 1954 painting by Fernand Léger titled Two Women Holding Flowers.

Swatch Bioceramic Watch Black Art Journey - Leger's Two Women Holding Flowers (Amazon Photo)

This watch is 41mm in diameter and is 9.85mm thick. It has 100 meters of water resistance.  The case is made from bioceramic material which is 2/3 zirconium oxide and 1/3 bio-sourced plastic made from castor oil. It has a durable, scratch resistant finish, and is lightweight for comfortable daily wear. If you are interested in taking a closer look, check out this Swatch Black Art Journey watch here on Amazon.

What is a Tool Watch?

Defining the Tool Watch

The tool watch is a broad category of watch that includes watches with designs that originate with watches that are relentlessly driven by the essentials of a function or mission. 

A Tudor Ranger Field Watch

Originally, these designs had few if any purely decorative features. But, in modern times, more decorative features have been added to boost the crossover appeal of tool watches. According to Grok AI:

A tool watch is a timepiece designed primarily for practical functionality in specific activities or environments, emphasizing durability, legibility, and reliability over aesthetic embellishment. Originally developed for professional or utilitarian purposes, tool watches are built to withstand demanding conditions while providing clear, precise timekeeping and task-specific features. They are versatile, often transitioning from specialized use to everyday wear due to their robust construction and timeless design.

There are several primary categories of tool watch. These include dive watches, field watches, pilot/aviation watches, racing/chronograph watch, and GMT watch. Each of these categories of tool watch has a job to do.

A Timex Navi XL 43mm Automatic Dive Watch (Amazon photo)

A recent conversation on X has really got me thinking on these categories and their definitions.  There are many watches that straddle the boundaries of these categories. Sometimes they have the look, but the not the performance. Other times, they have the performance, but it is buried under so many extraneous styling cues that the focus on functionality is lost. My Invicta Sub Aqua Noma III has 200 meters of water resistance, a screw-down crown, chronograph functionality, tachymeter markings, and a rotating bezel. It has lots of style, but I'm not sure how to categorize it. Maybe it's a Multi-Tool watch?

Invicta Sub Aqua Noma III

Sometimes, the discussion becomes into a matter of "I know it when I see it." That's probably natural because each type of tool watch has a standard bearer--a archetypal watch that represents the whole genre. For some reason, most of these archetypal watches are made by Rolex.

• Dive Watch:  Rolex Submariner
• Field Watch:  Rolex Explorer
• Pilot/Aviation Watch: Breitling Navitimer
• Racing/Chronograph Watch: Rolex Daytona
• GMT Watch: Rolex GMT-Master II

There are other watches that can claim first in a category. There are up and coming challengers. Perhaps, most importantly for most of us, there are also affordable alternatives in each of these watch categories.

Amazon Links For Watches:

Tudor Ranger (w/Rubber & Leather Strap)

Timex Navi XL 43mm Dive Watch 

Invicta Sub Aqua Noma 3 (only available in White)

Wristwatch Review: Armitron 20/5351GNSV Stainless Steel Diver-style Multifunction Watch

This is a fairly new addition to my collection. It's an Armitron 20/5351SV Stainless Steel Diver-style Multifunction Watch. 

Armitron 20/5351GNSV Stainless Steel Diver-style Multifunction Watch

Watch Features

This Armitron has 50 meters (165 feet) of water resistance and functional subdials to tell the 24-hour time, date, and day of the week. 

Watch Style

The watch has a rich green dial and bezel. The markers and sub-dials, are trimmed with a gold-tone. The hands have the gold tone as well for a rich look. However, the case is the familiar silver-tone of stainless steel. Somehow, the look works much better than I thought it would.

Watch Dimensions

The 20/5351GNSV has substantial presence on the wrist. It has a 52mm diameter dial and is 16mm thick. The bracelet is 24mm wide. It's a big watch.

Armitron 20/5351GNSV Stainless Steel Diver-style Multifunction Watch

Overall Impression

I got this watch at Burlington for an amazing price. But, that was luck, you can find the Armitron 20/5351 on Amazon. I wish it had a better name--a nickname even. Hulk is taken. Perhaps, I'll call this one the hornet. This watch is a great value and I enjoy wearing it!

TGIF: Are George Watches Any Good?

I have lots of cheap watches. They are like potato chips. If you happen to be shopping at Walmart or another discount store, it's very easy to throw one into the cart. 

A George Watch from Walmart

If you happen to be shopping at Walmart, chances are good that you'll throw a George watch into your cart. Of course, before you do, you may want to ask yourself one question: 

Are George Watches Any Good?

As the owner of many George watches, I can definitely tell you that George watches are actually very good.  In fact, they are better than you would think a watch that costs less than $20 can possibly be. I like them.

Why Are George Watches Good?

There are many reasons that George watches are actually pretty good. Here are three of the top reasons that I like them:

1. Style. George watch designs are on-point. The features and looks of the most popular iconic watches are well known now. Lots of these features make their way into George watch designs. You can find decorative subdials, tachymeter markings, and diver-style markings on many George watches.

2. Build Quality. George watches are made by pretty solid suppliers like EGC (E. Gluck Corporation - the parent of Armitron) and FMD ( a division of Fossil). These companies make millions of watches at many price points. The Walmart buyers have also obviously insisted on some quality standards in order to minimize product returns. 

Now, you can see where George has cut corners in design and materials. For example, this retro watch with baton markers looks phenomenal, but the crystal is made of some kind of plastic and the bracelet is integrated so it might be hard to replace.

A George watch with integrated bracelet and plastic crystal

While you won't escape all the things I identify in my post on the drawbacks of cheap watches, the quality is much higher than you would expect for $12.

3. Price. George watches are quite inexpensive. Most of them cost about $12 and even the most sophisticated usually cost less than $20. This makes them fun indulgences to pick up while you are at Walmart. For bang around watches, they are great. You don't really have to worry about damaging them. However, you won't gain any personal prestige if you wear one to the office.